According to the news of the day, about 1.3 million Americans lost their unemployment benefits at midnight last night. These are people who have been receiving the benefits for longer than the twenty six week maximum provided for in our Federal regulations.
I have never received unemployment benefits myself so I only know what I have read about the how the program works. As I understand it, when a person becomes unemployed they apply for unemployment benefits with their State. When their application is approved, they initially draw their benefits from a State fund and when that runs out they move to the Federal benefit fund which is normally good for the twenty six weeks. I think that I understand it correctly when I say that the State benefits are different from one State to the next so the actual benefit may last longer in some States than in others. Similarly, the amount of the benefit may vary from one State to the next. Neither of these points should make a difference here because we are only thinking about the Federal program.
Back to the news on CNN where I heard the figure of $300 per week used as an average benefit paid under the Federal unemployment benefit program. During one of the CNN spots, there were two guests (one from the conservative side of the aisle and one from the progressive side) and they were questioned about the change that took place last night.
The progressive position argued that these folks have no alternative in the way of employment available to them. Further, the benefit they are paid goes straight into our economy so stopping the benefit will mean a loss of economic activity or, put in different terms, a contraction of our economy in addition to the personal impact of the loss. If we multiply 1.3 million recipients by $1,200 per month of economic activity, these unemployment benefits are adding approximately $18.7 billion to our GDP.
The conservative position argued that some of the recipients have been receiving benefits from the Federal Government for nearly two years and enough is enough. He went on the say that these folks need to lower their standards of employment they will accept and move on with their lives. He seemed to be saying that the recipients were staying on the benefits by choice though I don’t think he specifically used those words.
Let’s break it down. If we think about a forty hour work week, $300 would be the same as $7.50 per hour and that may be less than the minimum wage in a lot of places around the country. $300 per week would add up to $15,600 per year so I don’t think anyone is getting rich on this program.
With 1.3 million people losing their benefits last night, I am sure that if we looked hard we could find someone who was staying on the program by choice, but is it reasonable to think that all of the recipients were staying on the program by choice? Is it reasonable to think that even a majority of the recipients were walking away from an employment opportunity paying more than $7.50 an hour so that they could keep drawing the Federal unemployment benefit? We all need to make up our own mind, but for me the idea that the recipients won’t take the higher paying job when it is available just doesn’t make sense.
We often hear people saying words to the effect that “I worked hard to get where I am and I shouldn’t have to pay for some loafer to sit on the couch and watch TV.” The people who make these statements seem to think that everyone is lazy except them and I don’t personally believe that to be the case. The people who make these statements often sound like their driven by greed and selfishness and I don’t personally believe that is the case either. For me, it comes down to whether or not we look in the mirror and see an individual person or an American. An individual works hard to earn a living and provide for their family. An American works hard to earn a living and provide for their family as part of a greater community. An American knows that if our economy isn’t working for all of us, it really isn’t working for any of us because we could all find ourselves in need at some point along the way.
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